Washington Report: Updates From the Capitol

The South Carolina Democratic Party’s executive committee voted Thursday night to uphold unemployed veteran Alvin Greene’s head-scratching bid for the U.S. Senate. The hearing had been requested by his opponent, former judge Vic Rawl, who was protesting the result.

There’s a lot of speculation surrounding Greene’s candidacy, ”and it’s definitely weird,” said South Carolina Democratic Party communications director Keiana Page, but the committee decided that Rawl’s lawyers didn’t provide sufficient evidence to warrant a new primary. Their arguments centered primarily on faulty voting machines and voters’ claims that they voted for Rawl, widely viewed to be the stronger candidate, but the machines yielded a different result.

This week House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-South Carolina) told news outlets that there’s a whiff of “elephant dung” surrounding Greene’s candidacy, but David Bositis, senior political analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, says furor over Greene is much ado about nothing.

“It’s a delicate situation that’s being blown out of proportion. It doesn’t matter who the Democrats nominate. They won’t win,” Bositis said.

“Joyce Elliott has stormed out of the gate and the Red to Blue program will give her the extra edge to win in November,” said DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen. “Elliott has already proven her commitment to being an independent leader who puts Arkansas jobs and economic recovery first and we look forward to helping her keep making that case to voters in the months ahead.”